NH economy slipped backward in 2012

By John Nolan

jnolan@fosters.com

fosters.com

By John Nolan

jnolan@fosters.com

Posted Jan. 31, 2013 at 3:15 AM

By John Nolan

jnolan@fosters.com

Posted Jan. 31, 2013 at 3:15 AM

CONCORD — As reported last week, the preliminary unadjusted December 2012 unemployment rate for New Hampshire was 5.6 percent. This compared to 4.9 percent in December 2011, and translates into almost 4,000 fewer New Hampshire residents holding a job at the close of 2012, compared to the previous year. This is known as the U-3 jobless rate.

The employment figures, according to the latest release by New Hampshire Employment Security, are as follows — 696,980 people holding jobs in December 2012, and 700,970 people holding jobs in December 2011.

This worsening of the state’s economy is running against the national trend, and has resulted in New Hampshire slipping down the state rankings. A year ago, New Hampshire had the fifth lowest unadjusted unemployment rate in the nation, behind North and South Dakota, Nebraska and Vermont. In December 2012, Vermont had moved up to fourth in the table, while New Hampshire retained the 14th it had dropped to in November.

The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, in late January, also released New Hampshhire’s U-6 figure — an alternative measure of labor underutilization.

From Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2012, the average U-6 percentage for New Hampshire was 11.2 percent

The U-6 number includes “total unemployed, plus all marginally attached workers, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers.” So called “discouraged workers” who have not looked for a job in four weeks are also included in the U-6 rate.

Regional rates

Elsewhere in New England in December, Rhode Island moved out of double-digit unemployment, hitting an official U-3 rate of 9.4 percent in December (from 10.0 percent in November), while Connecticut improved over the month from 8.3 to 7.8 percent. Massachusetts, in contrast, went from 6.1 to 6.6 percent in December. The best unadjusted rate in the region was recorded by Vermont in December, with a jobless rate of 4.7 percent, compared to November’s 4.6 percent. Things got a little tougher in Maine, in December, where the rate went from 7.0 to 7.3 percent over the month.

New Hampshire’s U-3 jobless rate is still better than the average rate for the United States, although the gap has now narrowed to two percentage points. Nationally, the unadjusted rate for December 2012 was 7.6 percent, an increase of 0.2 percentage points from the November rate, but a decrease of 0.7 percentage points from the United States’ December 2011 rate of 8.3 percent.

Counties, cities and towns

On Jan. 24, NHES also released its Local Area Unemployment Statistics for December, and in this area, jobless rates ranged from a low of 2.9 percent in the town of New Castle to a high of 9.2 percent in the perennially job-challenged Seabrook.

Belknap County, in December, posted an unadjusted jobless rate of 5.6 percent, Carroll County was at 5.5 percent, Rockingham County was at 6.1 percent and Strafford County stood at 5.2 percent.